Developing a Marketing Strategy

Abstract

Marketing success is the lifeblood of any company. Everyone knows that a marketing strategy impacts the company’s ability to generate profits after commercialization; but understand that it also impacts one’s ability to raise money from investors. It is not enough to just develop a product – though it may seem like it should be because of the difficulty accomplishing this in the biotech industry. Before beginning to develop a product, the entrepreneur must show that the product will be accepted by a target audience and that their marketing strategy will accomplish this goal. All too often good product ideas do not get funded because of a poor marketing strategy. Before developing a marketing strategy, there are a few basic marketing concepts with which to be familiar. In the first half of this chapter, we review some basic marketing concepts and market research tools. For the reader with a business and marketing background, you can skip over this review. However, for those without a marke­ting background, you should learn these concepts, as it will help explain market issues and provide an appreciation for the challenges in developing a good marketing plan. Occasionally, marketing concepts can be difficult to understand – to simplify them, I have included examples of well-known consumer products and household brands to show their application. Later, we apply these marketing concepts to two biotech products, and show how these tools can be used. This exercise will enable one to start developing their own product marketing strategy. There are many good books on marketing, and a few have been listed in the Additional Reading section for those who want to learn more about this underappreciated and misunderstood aspect of commercialization.